By Greg Kaplan
Congratulations! Your child is on the cusp of flocking the nest and will be applying to college soon. But before finalizing their school list and manifesting admission to their dream school, I’d like to share a story from when I was studying for the law school admissions exam at a local coffee shop. Over copious amounts of coffee, I befriended the barista. She was the same age as me, had graduated from Duke a few years ago, and, with little career prospects or direction, found herself behind the espresso machine.
This story illustrates a larger phenomenon that students face upon college graduation. While there’s nothing wrong with taking time to gain insight and direction in your life, statistics show that roughly half of college graduates end up underemployed in jobs that don’t require degrees to perform. Additionally, according to a recent Bank of America Institute study, a whopping 54 percent of Gen Zers are “very reliant” on their parents for financial support. Crushing student loans do not make paying rising rents any easier for a young person seeking to launch. As recent graduates become mired in underemployment and jobs they neither want nor studied for, educational and career dissatisfactions are amplified.
Each year, my college admissions team works to prepare over 1,000 high school students for the journey to college and career. Many of our students are aiming for the most selective colleges in the United States. Some are shocked to hear that the first thing, even highly selective universities look for in applicants is whether or not an applicant has had a part-time job in high school.
Why? Learning how to be the lowest person on the totem pole and dealing with other people’s problems is a key skill needed for advancing in one’s career. And in an era where snowplow parents remove every obstacle in their child’s path to ensure they reach their intended goals, diffusing World War III from placing the wrong milk in a latte is the only thing a parent cannot do for their child. Hiring managers are actively seeking to avoid becoming one of the 20 percent of managers who report parents of their Gen Z employees reaching out to address their children’s problems in the workplace. So, perhaps obtaining a barista job in high school is one of the better ways to avoid having to settle for a similar job once a young person is equipped with a college degree.
With tuition, room and board, and other costs approaching $100,000 per year for many private universities and $40,000 per year at public universities, we must be thoughtful about how we approach the journey to college and career and ensure that it prepares young people for what they seek to do next in their lives. This requires young people and their families to align the journey to college and their college education with their long-term goals.
Once a student is admitted, the cost of an education is the factor most within a student’s control and there is no shame in prioritizing lower cost options if you will get the same return in the form of a good education, internship opportunities, and future career development. College, much more than a university’s name, is an experience rooted in developing skills and perspective needed to make the most of future opportunities. Yes, our society places an emphasis on brands as status symbols, and attending a highly esteemed university can impress others, but attending a more “prestigious” university is not necessarily a pathway to success. Recently, legendary hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, has found students graduating from his alma mater, Harvard, to be “whiny snowflakes” despite how difficult it is to be admitted there and has pledged to no longer hire them.
Moreover, graduate schools cannot give a preference to students graduating from more prestigious universities. Similarly, many hiring managers prioritize students with stronger academic performance and relevant work experience over the name of the undergraduate institution. It’s helpful for college-bound students to also recognize that prestige does not necessarily translate into desired career outcomes. According to a study by online recruiting platform HiringSolved, there are more San Jose State University alumni working in high-paying Silicon Valley tech jobs than there are graduates from the Ivy League. Even in my own life, I had better job prospects graduating from a then-unranked UC Irvine School of Law than I did when I obtained my bachelor’s degree from the top-ranked University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. College, like every other part of our lives, is what we make of it. Prioritize how a school sets a student up for success over its name.
Beyond cost, we must be honest with what a college education can do for a young person and what a young person must do on their own to make the most of it. While many in academia will tout the importance of academic exploration and critical thinking, this is not enough. A college education must simultaneously teach young people to think critically and openly while equipping them with the skills they need to thrive as adults.
In an age where AI plays an increasing role in the job market, internships and part-time jobs are more and more crucial to ensure students forge a path to the career they want. And it starts as early as college: students who can identify universities whose internship and networking opportunities lie at the juxtaposition of their career and educational goals will have a distinct advantage when it comes to maximizing the time, money, and energy they are investing in the college journey.
When we shift away from thinking about college as the final destination and start treating it as the next step on the journey to fulfillment, we can maximize it. At its core, a college education is an incredible privilege to develop skills and perspective to chase one’s dreams. Maximizing the return on investment will ensure that the results are aligned with a young person’s goals.
About Greg Kaplan
Greg Kaplan is an internationally recognized college admissions strategist and the author of The Journey: How to Prepare Kids for a Competitive and Changing World. Beyond helping students earn admission, Greg and the Kaplan Educational Group team are committed to helping students achieve health, happiness and financial independence through their path to college and career. To learn more, visit www.kaplaneducationalgroup.com.
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